If ARGs like The
Beast can produce such an incredible reaction among people, think about
what that kind of power education could harness by learning from it and
other popular ARGs. Through personal observation, I've seen people really
come together over mysteries and puzzles like these, and I've learned
more about topics I'd never have researched on my own. These games create
a real sense of camaraderie, with so many people coming together that
indeed, as the player said in McGonigal's paper, it's like we're one unit,
and that positive feeling makes me want to participate in more games.
This is a great resource for education. If educators and designers could
put their heads together, they could come up with something that has enough
seamless plot points and puzzles, enough fantasy to keep players hooked,
that we'd play and not even realize that the real object was learning
until we'd already done it.